Desmond Tutu speaks at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu's home was robbed while he was away to attend the memorial honouring Nelson Mandela, police said on Wednesday, marking the third time in recent years thieves have targeted him.

Robbers hit Tutu's home in Cape Town on Tuesday after nightfall the same day the Nobel Peace prize laureate spoke at the memorial service honouring his fellow anti-apartheid fighter Mandela in Johannesburg.

No arrests had been made so far, a police statement said. It provided no further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Tutu's spokesman, Roger Friedman, confirmed the robbery. Tutu and his wife couldn't immediately establish what had been stolen, he said.

Burglaries are not rare in South Africa, where many homes feature barred windows and electric fencing.

In August, robbers broke into Tutu's Cape Town home while he and his wife Leah were sleeping. The two weren't harmed. In 2007, thieves broke into his home in Johannesburg's Soweto township and stole, among other things, his Nobel Prize medal. Police later recovered it.